Despite the near-constant bustle to which a Resistance base was host, there were still times when R2-D2 found himself at a loose end. This was one of those times, and to his dismay, this coincided with C-3PO feeling reflective. They were stood in a hangar, watching other droids go back and forth.

"When did we get become old, R2?

Quizzical beeping answered him, R2 pointing out that strictly speaking, C-3PO had been old for as long as he could remember.

"I wasn't speaking about keeping my memory intact."

R2 still thought that was a factor. Both of them didn't actually feel as old as they were, thanks to diligent upkeep and, yes, the wipes which the Resistance wouldn't dream of performing on a droid nowadays.

Now, R2 and his companion were moving in perfect sync with the steady flow of time. They could remember their old friends who were no longer with them. Admiral Ackbar was a sad absence, old Bail Organa too. Han Solo, even more so. And of course, Master Luke. His loss ached for R2, as much as anything could ache for a droid. It was like a strata of rock in his mind, made up of people who were gone.

So yes, he thought this was probably the cause of them beginning to feel old. Even if, in his considered opinion, C-3PO had never been truly young.

"I resent the implication of that, R2. given what my master built me from."

R2 protested. He hadn't meant it like that. 3PO's pride was so very brittle however, he thought, that offence was rather inevitable.

"And to answer it, no, I do not attribute this feeling to my composition. That would be the weight of responsibility, R2. Something you have only had fleeting encounters with, down the years, but which I have shouldered since my inception." He drew himself up. "But what I was actually referring to was this swarm of young droids around us. We appear to have more every day."

Which would be a positive thing, he was reminded.

"Even so, it's quite disconcerting. No, they are quite personable – ah, hello BA-9. I hear you've been industrious with young Captain Pava."

The little black-and-silver astromech wobbled and chittered, eager to share what she and her pilot had achieved in the defence of Huenemak.

C-3PO straightened up, about the most he could do to look impressed. "A TIE Silencer, you say? Remarkable, quite remarkable. It sounds like you have earned yourself a full year of oil baths."

He didn't have quite as ready an answer for BA-9's enthusiasm for taking the fight to the First Order. Presumably that came from the young droid's mistreatment by her old masters, and from being around Captain Pava and her peers.

R2 was able to offer more fulsome praise. He knew about battling, whereas zeal for the fight was one thing that C-3PO would never really understand.

"Do you miss it, R2?" he asked as BA-9 rolled away. "Just you with your one pilot, in a single fragile starfighter?"

R2-D2 whirred thoughtfully. At times, he rather did. He didn't lament the times when he was packed off with a bunch of Jedi younglings or a clutch of other droids, under an obstreperous officer who didn't appreciate them. Back, that was, in the days too old for even C-3PO to remember. But there was something to be said for just heading out in a starfighter with your pilot, the two of you against the Galaxy.

"Hmm. I suppose a romantic like you would say that, especially watching all these youthful droids rattling around the place."

Whereas C-3PO didn't have a romantic bone in his body, R2 retorted. Now BB-8, rolling over and chirping happily at the older two… that little droid understood quite well. R2-D2 thought sometimes that he saw rather a lot of himself in the youthful astromech.

"Ah yes, intrepid little BB-8. I do hope you're keeping our Commander Dameron safe, and young BA-9 on a stable course?"

BB-8 responded enthusiastically, and added some news of his own.

"A request? For two of us?"

BB-8 chirruped happily. A request from the General herself.

"Negotiations with an information broker? That certainly sounds like important work."

Then BB-8 told him where.

"On Nar Shadda?"

On the one hand, R2 didn't have to worry about a contemplative C-3PO henceforth. On the other hand, the protocol droid was now returning to his very favourite theme: the unparalleled ordeal that was his existence, and how dreadful it was about to get.

And as ever, R2-D2 would have to sit through all of it.